World Press Digest

The Zionist Record of South Africa, in an editorial asking for “Sanity in Zionist ranks,” says:

Against all the advice of the responsible elements in their own party, including every one of their important leaders, the Labor Organization in Palestine insisted on a referendum on proposals making for a settlement of labor disputes and other causes of trouble in Palestine. It was a clear case of Hashomer Hazair, the extreme wing of Labor, encouraged unfortunately by some other sections of Zionist opinion in Palestine who should have known better, forcing the issue; and the result is a serious setback to the efforts of responsible men of all parties to heal the breaches of the day.

On the other side, we see a continuance of the inexplicable attitude of the Revisionists on the question of discipline. It is remarkable that the very Union which, more than any other Zionist body, imposes rigid discipline upon its own members, should claim as a principle the right to be part of the larger Zionist whole without being amenable to the discipline of the whole. The Revisionists want to eat their kugel and have it. We cannot but believe that in this case, too the extremists in their ranks have forced the issue; we know at least that at their recent conference in Cracow there was frequent divergence of opinion between the presidium and the more extreme elements.

CHILDREN IN REICH SEEN HARDEST HIT

The Church Times of London, commenting on the increased wave of Jewish persecution in Germany, says:

The persecution of the Jews in Germany continues, and is, indeed, becoming more and more comprehensive. The life of the educated Jew, whose family has probably been in the country for centuries, must be almost unbearable; and the saddest side of the whole thing is that it is the children, compelled to attend the public schools, who are the worst sufferers of what is really unspeakable wickedness.

SEES BALFOUR PLAN BEING REALIZED

The Dundee Courier and Advertiser of Scotland, commenting on the situation in Palestine, says:

In the famous Balfour Declaration on the future of Palestine under British rule the country was spoken of as destined to become once again “a national home for the Jews.”

This expression of policy gave acute offense to the Arabs, who formed the vast majority of the actual inhabitants of the country, and they have never ceased to protest against it. And in deference to their protest, the Palestine Administration has severely controlled Jewish immigration.

Despite that control, however the Jewish ideal seems to be slowly but inexorably realizing itself.

The Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland has just reported that during last year the Jewish immigration “almost reached the record figure of 50,000,” and that the total Jewish population of Palestine is now 325,000, or about a quarter of the population of Palestine.

Most of this Jewish population comes from Russia and Eastern Europe, but persecution in Germany accounts for an appreciable proportion of 1934’s record figure. Altogether it is a population among which British Jews would not find themselves much at home.